Friday, April 18th 2014
1981 Yamaha XT500 — Part 2
The Yamaha XT 500 was first produced in 1975 and was made until 1981. It shares the same engine with its road relatives, the SR500 and its off-road variant the TT500.
One of the first things that drew me to owning a Yamaha XT500 was the bike’s history as a homologation Dakar bike. In 1979 and 1980, Cyril Neveu piloted an XT500 to first place in both years. In 1981, Yamaha switched to the XT600 and its four valve layout, which didn't fare quite as well—for whatever reason.
Cyril Neveu is pretty much a complete badass on his own as well. He ultimately ended up winning five Dakar titles. No big deal. Owning a bike that is related to his success seems awesome in my mind. But, I’m a huge nerd…
The bike pictured above, even in looks, is quite a bit different from a stock XT500. But, for me, maybe it’s just the knowledge of the bike’s pedigree that makes it cool.
In my opinion, the Yamaha XT500 seems to have paved the way for today’s single cylinder adventure bike market. It’s a simple, reliable bike, and has enough power and stability for off-road and on-road use for many miles.
It also helped renew interest in four stroke motorcycles as being capable off-road. It’s only reasonable that the XT500 has therefore reduced global warming and probably the reason why we still have a few glaciers.
Even in just the short time that I have ridden this bike, the handling feels playful and the power is adequate. It makes perfect sense that it would be an early and accomplished adventure bike. But, more on that later.
We have the technology…
It didn't take long for parts to begin coming in. I wanted to start with some necessary basics. The stock sprockets and chain looked a little worn and hook-toothed. They were in need of being replaced and not in any condition for more than a handful of miles.
I found some sunstar sprockets (stock gearing) on eBay and a new Renthal Z-Ring chain on Amazon. In retrospect, I could have gone with a larger front sprocket, as the bike is geared pretty low. Fortunately, that’s easily fixed later.
After a bit of cleaning, re-greasing and the new sprocket installed, the rear wheel was looking good.
Elsewhere on the bike, there was quite a bit of dirt and crud. Already I was racking up some decent hours with Simple Green and a variety of nylon brushes.
While preparing the new chain, I noticed the bike's chain tensioner was looking a bit… ungainly. It looked like it would be a great candidate for soaking in Pine-Sol for a few days.
The Pine-Sol cleaning method is pretty simple. I first read about it on Advrider but it has been documented quite a few other places. Everyone seems to use a slightly different ratio, but the process seems relatively forgiving.
First, I get a plastic container and fill it half with warm water and half with Pine-Sol (some use a more diluted amount—closer to 1:2 or 1:3). After I placed the parts in the plastic bin, I leave them soaking anywhere from one to three days. I’m not sure what the risks are if it soaks for too long. I think the glycolic acid (active ingredient) does slightly etch the metal. It likely doesn’t take off more than fractions of a millimeter (nor weaken the metal), but it’s still something to keep in mind.
Pine-Sol works especially well on aluminum and has some limited success on steel. I wouldn’t recommend using it on anything that is plated—nickel, chrome or otherwise—and I’m fairly certain it’s ineffective with plastics.
After a three day soak and some light scrubbing, the tensioner ended up looking pretty damn good. Not a bad before and after sequence!
Even the spring was looking nearly new.
Often, it’s easy for me to get distracted when I find something on the bike which is easy to fix/clean/repair that has a high level of satisfaction when completed. For example: the grips. The stock grips on the bike were past their “grippy” phase in life and had moved on to a more slimy feel.
Fortunately, I had some spares laying around and I was able to quickly replace them. I don’t actually remember what brand the new grips are, but I do know that they were left over from my KLR 650 rebuild.
While the grips were off, it was a great opportunity to use the Mothers Back-to-Black product and start bringing some life into the faded and grey looking controls. There were some rough looking rubber dust covers around the brake levers, but I decided to take them off. I probably offended a few XT500 purists…
After putting the rear wheel and new chain on, the bike was starting to feel like it was coming together. The bling factor of the gold Renthal chain was really helping too.
I also found a non-matching and non-1981 correct left hand side cover for temporary use until I could find a better solution (the XT500 gods must be really upset now). It’s the white side cover pictured above. The bike should come with a silver side cover, but when I bought it, the side cover was missing.
The tires that came with the bike (supposedly the originals) looked pretty tired; some antique version of the Bridgestone Trailwings. They were cracking, dry rotted, mildly cupped and generally in rough shape. I figured changing the tires and giving the wheels a good cleaning was in order.
The old rotten tires were more of a pain in the ass to remove than I expected. As I dug in with tire irons, the sidewalls and bead fell apart. This made me realize how good of an idea it was that I was riding the bike around the block about an hour earlier. I was half tempted to try cutting off the disintegrating tires, but I ended up putting a bit more elbow grease and time into them and I eventually got the tires off.
I was able to do a majority of the cleaning with just a nylon brush and some Simple Green. The spokes took a little bit of time, but they were mostly covered in just dust and standard dirt.
The rubber rim tape (I’m not really sure what the correct term is for this) was also in poor shape and needed to be replaced (new tape shown above).
The tire I planned to put on the bike was the Shinko 700. I’ve run them on my Suzuki DR650 for the last year (approximately 6,000 miles of riding) and they have been fantastic. They don’t wear out very fast on the highway and they’re fairly decent on dirt and basic trails. I don’t have much experience off-road on motorcycles, so even if I had Dunlop D606s, I wouldn’t be pushing the bike any faster or harder. I think they’ll be a great pair for the XT500, aesthetically and functionally.
This was actually the first time I had ever dealt with bead locks before. I was unsure with how it went on with the rubber rim liners. I actually ended up putting the liners beneath the bead locks. This is incorrect (idiot!). I even had to poke a small hole through the liner for this to work. Honestly, that should have been a red flag, but it didn’t seem right to me the other way. I couldn’t reference the old liners because they were so old they just fell apart as I took the old tubes out.
It took me a little while to dig and find a YouTube video that showed how to correctly deal with bead locks. Once I did find the video showing the correct installation, it was after I had buttoned the bike back up. I haven’t had a flat tire yet, so it might not matter as much as I think it does. I still want to rectify it to get that to-do item off of my mind.
Ahh, look at that freshly mounted tire. I was actually having some issues with the Windex method of lubricating the bead. It’s somewhat embarrassing, but I always seem to have a bit of an issue with getting the bead aligned and fully seated correctly.
I tried all sorts of methods. I brought the tires up to 60psi. I ratcheted straps around the circumference of the tire. Switched to 1:1 diluted dish soap. I stepped on the tires and bounced them around in every way imaginable, trying to get the bead to correctly pop in the right place. None of it worked with much success. I think I reset the bead on the front and rear about ten times each. Eventually, I ended up switching to undiluted dish soap, brought the tires up to 60psi with my air compressor, waited a few minutes and they ended up getting seated correctly. What a relief!
In the future, I’m going to use an actual tire mounting grease and lubricate the inner tube with rubber grease instead of talcum powder. This will supposedly help reduce pinch flats as it provides superior lubrication and heat dissipation. If anyone has a rubber grease that they can recommend for this, I’m all ears.
Here’s the required hover bike photo.
The more I work on the XT500, the more I’m really loving the slightly smaller size (compared to my DR650) and the simplicity of the bike’s setup. It’s a really great combination of function and classic looks.
I was able to finish getting the rear tire back on (for the second time). It’s starting to look pretty good. Almost rideable!
That's it for this installment. Next time I will cover refreshing the front forks. I'm a bit behind on covering this project… the bike is already registered and riding around town! So please, be patient! •
Updated on Saturday, Feb. 15th 2020